Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 12:16:02 PM

Login with username, password and session length

House of Hell

Started by biggytitbo, July 02, 2010, 02:47:27 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

biggytitbo

I suspect many on here would have grown up with the ace Fighting Fantasy books, and  surprisingly they're making a film version of probably my favourite book in the series - house of hell!

http://www.houseofhellmovie.com

I'm not sure how well known they are, but quite a few of the titles would make cracking films. The superhero themed Appointment with FEAR, the Sorcery series, although Creature of Havoc would probably be deemed 'unfilmable'.




Ignatius_S

Nicely spotted!

Think you're right, quite a few would provide a film plot nicely.

surreal

Someone needs to do Warlock of Firetop Mountain pronto - never did finish that one, always got lost in the maze.

biggytitbo

I still have a burning sense of injustice about masks of Mayhem,  I never did finish that one and I even read through the entire book and couldn't find how it ended. We were cheated!

Ignatius_S

The Sorcery! series by Jackson was very good... now available via iTunes - http://www.fightingfantasygamebooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1763&Itemid=9

Quote from: biggytitbo on July 02, 2010, 03:17:17 PM
I still have a burning sense of injustice about masks of Mayhem,  I never did finish that one and I even read through the entire book and couldn't find how it ended. We were cheated!
Some things Man was not meant to know.

Whug Baspin

Ah thanks, those where the days of a front cover trigering the imagination. I remember reading them on the bog and not rather than risk dying having a finger at every point I could skip back to. If it recreates that nostalgia it will be a terrible film.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

The Warlock himself was a bit of a fucker, you could say.

Wasn't there an ace one where you drove a car around, in a Death Race/Mad Max-esque wasteland? I can't remember what that was called. Freeway Fighter? Never won that, though I gave it a fair few goes.

I always remember Temple Of Terror, mainly for being crap at it, and am now re-reminding myself of Citadel of Chaos.

The one I actually won was set in a gladiator pit, where you had to defeat all your cell-mates and break out for freedom. That was fun.




surreal

Quote from: Whug Baspin on July 02, 2010, 03:20:41 PM
Ah thanks, those where the days of a front cover trigering the imagination. I remember reading them on the bog and not rather than risk dying having a finger at every point I could skip back to. If it recreates that nostalgia it will be a terrible film.

That's how it should start, slowly tracking in from a shot of you reading one on the bog... it would be like The Princess Bride! (sort of)

Ignatius_S

Freeway Fighter was a particularly good one - there was a sci-fi one too, which was great.

Full list here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fighting_Fantasy_gamebooks

biggytitbo

The FF books were good, but my favourites were the grailquest ones - http://homepages.tesco.net/~parsonsp/html/grailquest.html

I seem to remeber them been really funny as well, whereas the FF ones were a bit too po faced at times.

Whug Baspin

Grailquest were superb and very funny indeed. I still have a couple.

biggytitbo

I think I still have whichever ones had the purple and yellow covers somewhere too. I'm sure I still have Creature of Havoc knocking around in a box too.

biggytitbo

Oohh the nostalgia is relaly floqwing now...did anyone ever play this one? -

Superb story and atmosphere, would really make a cracking film.

Ignatius_S

I seem to remember playing at least four of the Grailquest ones - not sure if there was the law of diminishing returns for me, but sure I did enjoy them quite a bit... the bit about you being a young boy I found a bit rubbish as a concept.

Looking at the link, I remember quite a few of those books...  ah, memories....

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Didn't Livingstone and Jackson end up involved, and still are involved in computer games?

I think one of them created the idea for the 00's management sim Beach Life. That certainly had a sense of humour.

Whug Baspin

I just looked up the Grailquest author and he seems to be a complete fruitcake and a very popular one.

biggytitbo

Livingston was behind the Tomb Raider games and Jackson I think worked on some Peter Molyneux games.

Santa's Boyfriend

Is there still a market for these things?  Now computer games are so big (I'm playing Heavy Rain at the moment) I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing has died out.

Cerys

Quote from: surreal on July 02, 2010, 03:14:28 PM
Someone needs to do Warlock of Firetop Mountain pronto - never did finish that one, always got lost in the maze.

I hear you.

I started these when they appeared in our local library van - although I always cheated; I didn't bother with the dice and just decided that I won every encounter.  I remember my mum saying that Mr Oliver, the librarian, had mentioned that they'd had some complaints from parents about content.  She asked me if I thought there was anything dodgy about the books.  I was gobsmacked that anyone would complain about them.  Now, years later, I see the truth - they were a gateway to much harder games.

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: Ignatius_S on July 02, 2010, 03:27:14 PM
Freeway Fighter was a particularly good one - there was a sci-fi one too, which was great.

Full list here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fighting_Fantasy_gamebooks

I loved Freeway Fighter, but I think it would be considered too much of a Mad Max ripoff if they made a film version

niat

When I clicked on the link for this thread I didn't know what a nostalgic rush I'd get from it. House of Hell was one of the better books as I recall.

I was surprised at how many of the titles I remembered, and I can still picture all the covers of those I remember. I think I still have my collection somewhere in a box in my garage.

I must have ducked out at Creature of Havoc, as that's the last one on the list I remember. I would have been 13 when that came out, which sounds about right.

Starship Traveller was the first one I read / played, and was probably the last one I bothered playing with dice. The rest I read with fingers as bookmarks, keeping my options open, after experiencing too many frustrating restarts from arbitrary choices of dying through choosing the left path instead of the right.

The Sorcery series was my favourite, though I also liked the Way of the Tiger books. The gradual introduction of non-Jackson and Livingstone authors seemed to dilute the formula and I remember being disappointed with a few of the later titles I bought.

My favourite was Talisman of Death, as I loved the cover art and it probably got me into the Way of the Tiger books, by the same authors.

Ahh, Fighting Fantasy books, thanks for this thread, biggytibo.

Tokyo Sexwhale

Scorpion Swamp was my favourite in the series - it seemed more atmospheric, and had the bonus that you could go back to areas you'd already visited.

Most of the early ones are very good though - but after the first 20 or so, they started to get a bit samey.

"Choose Your Own Adventure" was the real gateway series though.

Does anyone remember another book series which consisted only of pictures.  You would have one gamebook and play a character and a friend would have the other.  The purpose, I think was to kill the other, but it never seemed to work when I played it.

Phil_A

I went through a phase of getting the FF books out of the library when I was a young 'un. I guess they kind-of filled a gap between kids books and more adult stuff. I never had the patience to play them properly, but they were usually entertaining enough to read on their own.



This one sticks in my mind for having some memorably grotesque imagery in it, particularly the main villain you encounter at the end, who is just a big disgusting blob of flesh and limbs. At one point you encounter a woman trapped in a living suit of armour(the one on the cover), and I was convinced you must be able to go back and rescue her somehow, but all you can do is just leave her there! In all honesty I'm still a bit disappointed about that.

Viero_Berlotti

Surprised there's no mention of the Lone Wolf series so far. In my opinion it was the the high peak of fantasy game-book literature. 28 consecutive story books, and you could continue your character from the last book into the next. It was a truly brilliant interactive fantasy epic, that although not perfect, did things with gameplay and narrative non of the others quite managed.

Apparently there was a Lone Wolf next gen console game in production, with Joe Dever directly involved. However it has now been cancelled, and as with all these things the film rights have been sold, but unfortunately Magnamund will probably never see the light of day.

Glebe

Along with Star Wars and the Spectrum 48k, the Fighting Fantasy books were the pillars of my childhood. Myself and several friends were basically obsessed with them... I still have them, actually. Some fantastic artwork from the likes of Ian Miller and Ian McCaig (who later did production design on The Phantom Menace).

dredd

Quote from: biggytitbo on July 02, 2010, 02:47:27 PM
The superhero themed Appointment with FEAR
A favourite of mine.

It has a cheeky homage/lift from The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
Spoiler alert
Manifestations of Eldritch are identifiable by their robotic right hand, artificial eyes, and steel teeth. Ditto The Titanium Cyborg in F.E.A.R. (who happens to be a master of disguise amongst other things).
[close]

I am another one who was obsessed with these books when i was younger. My first being Forest of Doom, which at the time opened up my imagination to the world of sorcery and beasties.
Deathtrap Dungeon was another fave. I think i always prefered Iain Livinstone in the FF series but when Steve Jackson did the Sorcery series starting with The Shamutanti Hills i think it really stepped up a gear.
    

Was there not a more adult focused series of adventure books as well with some sort of Conan type character?

biggytitbo

I seem to remeber the Cretan Chronicles was a bit more mature - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretan_Chronicles

I still think Creature of Havok in the pinnacle of the genre, a really audacious and complex idea pulled off with aplomb. Sorcery was probbaly the best traditional story series though.

Has anyone actually tried playing (is that what you would call it?) a FF book recently? I have my collection still, in the attic, and am kinda tempted to see how long my attention would last on one of them now. Think i would need to be in an Xbox free zone though, a jail cell or a desert island maybe!     


biggytitbo

Well for you iphone berks, you can download versions of some of the books from itunes. Not sure I'd have the patience to play through the books again now though.